Bold new broadband strategy from Neotel
Neotel launched its new cordless home phone recently, offering consumers an affordable alternative to Telkom’s traditional analogue phone service. This new device from Neotel is available on the company’s NeoConnect Lite contract and prepaid packages.
While the launch of a cordless phone may not seem like much of a change from what Neotel is already offering consumers, it is actually the first step in a much bigger strategy surrounding broadband and voice services.
New broadband strategy
Neotel is set to launch a range of new broadband devices and services in this year, but the company’s new consumer offerings will no longer be based on a single device which offers both voice and data.
Neotel’s GM of consumer services Mukul Sharma explains that the company does not want to offer devices where the data connection is dropped when a voice call is received – which is currently the case with their NeoConnect services.
The strategy therefore is to offer consumers the option of a voice-only service, a data-only service and then bundled voice and data products with two separate devices, at better pricing than the separate offerings.
Sharma added that the new services will also offer higher speeds – 3.1Mbps downlink and 1.8Mbps uplink speeds instead of the previous 2.4Mbps downlink and 156Kbps uplink speeds.
The new broadband devices will be similar to the company’s current NeoFlex Data devices, but at around half the price. Sharma said that a price point below R1,000 for such a device is important to ensure it is affordable to consumers – especially the prepaid market.
Better priced services
Neotel is also set to replace their current NeoConnect Prime packages with better offerings in July 2011 – coinciding with the launch of the new broadband devices. The NeoConnect Prime service in its current format will therefore be terminated in July 2011 when it comes to new sales.
Apart from better priced packages consumers can also look forward to prepaid packages on most of the company’s data offerings.
Neotel will further combine their two current yet separate CRM systems – one is to serve their prepaid users and the other their contract subscribers. The will make migration between contracts and prepaid services seamless said Neotel. The combination of CRM systems will be completed by the end of May 2011 said Neotel.
High end WiMax packages later in 2011
High end consumers will not be forgotten about. Sharma says that they have already migrated between 100 and 150 of their high end CDMA subscribers to WiMax (free of charge) – a technology which suits larger download limits.
Neotel is also planning to develop WiMax offerings aimed at the consumer market, which should be launched before the end of 2011.
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